


all things soft and beautiful and bright

by welcometothehumanrace



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU, Fluff, M/M, One Shot, achilles!keith, iliad!au, no one dies, patroclus!lance, tsoa!au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-12-15 03:12:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11797236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/welcometothehumanrace/pseuds/welcometothehumanrace
Summary: “I don’t need to build up my ego, I’m already the greatest warrior there is,” and he said it without bragging or any arrogance, said it as if it was a statement as simple as stating the sky was blue. Because it was, the fates had already spoke it so—he had no reason to believe anything less. “And you’re going to be with me, and I’ll be the first hero who was ever happy.”He spoke that too like it was without doubt, like Lance being there was the only thing he needed to be happy.





	all things soft and beautiful and bright

**Author's Note:**

> bc apparently i have a thing for writing one shots of aus where everyone dies, but before everyone dies
> 
> maybe one day I’ll come up with a title all on my own instead of basing it off lyrics or quotes

“Keith, _Keith,_ oh my god slow down! Not all of us are sons of gods, you know!”

Keith laughed in response, but made no effort to slow. He kept tugging at Lance, dragging the taller boy through the forest at a speed that had Lance tripping over his feet.

They were still damp, since he had been by the river when Keith had found him. He hadn’t even had time to dry them off properly before Keith’s was pulling him with an urgency he hadn’t seen before.

When Keith finally slowed, Lance was more than annoyed to realize they were only at the cave. Shiro was nowhere to be seen so clearly they were not there for a lesson with him. Lance didn’t understand why Keith had been so insistent about rushing here, they were going to end up there again tonight for bed.

Keith pulled them until they were in the cave, then finally let go of Lance. Turning to look at him, Keith opened his mouth to say something, then flushed. Lance raised his eyebrows at that. There was little that could faze the great Keith Kogane.

“Is this a good speechless or a bad speechless,” Lance teased, trying to get Keith to relax a bit. He was always a little off after talking with his mother, but this was different then the past time.

Keith furrowed his eyebrows for a bit before meeting Lance’s eyes.

“Yes,” he said resolutely and Lance felt himself relax at that.

“So, I take it your visit with your mother went well?”

And considering he was talking about a goddess, Lance probably shouldn’t sound so sarcastic. But Keith never liked visits with his mother, and Lance liked them even less, so he felt at least a little justified is his tone.

Keith didn’t respond verbally, but instead walked forward to cup Lance’s face in his hands and pulled him close. Lance’s eyes widened as Keith pressed a gentle kiss against his lips, before his they gently fluttered closed. Lance kissed Keith back for a moment before pulling away, resting his hands against Keith’s chest.

“You know we really shouldn’t,” Lance said, eyes searching the area around him fruitlessly. Despite how much he disliked her presence, Lance knew better than to do something that would really piss Keith’s mom off. Like kissing her son.

To say Keith’s mom hated Lance would be an understatement to the highest degree. It would be like saying Hades was a little warm, or that Zeus had a slight problem keeping it in his pants.

Then again, being a goddess and all, Lance liked to think it wasn’t personal. That in her eyes, no one would be good enough for her son. Because Lance full heartedly agreed with that. But the way her gaze burned into Lance gave him the distinct idea that she had a problem with specifically him.

So they kept tended to keep their interactions as platonic as possible. The last time Lance had kissed Keith she’d sent him away to train with Shiro, and even though that had worked out for Lance, he really didn’t want to push his luck.

“Lance,” Keith said, pulling him from his thoughts. No one said his name like Keith did. It was a short name, it didn’t roll of the tongue and it wasn’t anything special. But Keith said it like it was the most important name in the universe. “Lance, she can’t see us here.”

Lance paused, eyes squinting at Keith. As nice as that sounded, Keith’s mom was a goddess. He doubted there was anything she couldn’t see.

“I mean it,” Keith continued, looking earnestly at Lance. “She can’t see us at all.”

“How do you know that for sure?”

“I asked her.”                             

“You asked you mother if she could see us!” Lance exclaimed, eye bulging open. “You don’t think that sounds a little suspicious?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Keith snapped, patience wearing thin. “I asked and she said she couldn’t!”

“…And you’re sure she wasn’t lying,” Lance said after a pause, hesitant to believe that this was true.

“My mother has done many things that…I don’t necessarily agree with,” Keith said carefully, before grabbing Lance’s hands. “But she’d never lie to me. Plus, she was too upset that I asked her in the first place for me to think she _was_ lying.”

Lance snorted at that, and Keith beamed. Pressing closer to Lance, Keith patted down the part of Lance’s hair behind his ears that would never lay flat.

“She can’t see us,” Keith whispered again, and Lance didn’t hesitate to press forward, slotting his lips against Keith’s. Keith responded immediately, bringing his arms up to wrap around Lance’s neck.

Lance kissed Keith like he’d wanted to for years, much more passionate than the peck he’d given him when they were just 13 and Lance was out of his mind with fear about his feelings for Keith. Now he tangled his fingers in his hair and deepened the kiss, unable to fight the moan that escaped his lips when Keith responded just as eagerly.

Keith’s grip on him tightened at the sound, and suddenly he was being pushed back until his calves hit the frame of the bed in the corner of the cave and he was falling onto his back. Keith wasted no time climbing on top of Lance.

They’d spent many nights in that bed, breaths shared and fingers tangled, but none of them had Lance had Keith pressed to wonderfully against him. He never wanted it to end.

“Keith,” Lance said, breaking away from Keith’s lips and biting his lip to keep from groaning when his lips ducked low to kiss his neck. “You-I-you gotta be sure about this. I mean just because your mom can’t see us—”

He was interrupted by Keith reaching up to silence Lance with his lips. It was a slower kiss than the past one’s and it stole Lance’s breath away.

“I know exactly what I want,” Keith rasped against his lips and Lance didn’t even know he could be so turned on. “Do you?”

In response Lance pulled Keith against him again, relishing in the noise it drew out of him. Lance felt like he was burning as hot as the stars that hung above them.

-

Lance lay on his side in absolutely contentment, Keith tucked in his arms with his back pressed against his chest. Most nights they’d lay on their backs, taking turn pointing out the constellations, but Lance couldn’t think of anything he’d want to look at more than Keith lying peacefully in front of him.

“I can feel you staring at me.”

 “Yeah, you tell me that a lot,” Lance snorted, rolling his eyes and tightening his arms around Keith. “I bet you can’t even tell, and you just like saying it to build up your ego.”

“I don’t need to build up my ego, I’m already the greatest warrior there is,” and he said it without bragging or any arrogance, said it as if it was a statement as simple as stating the sky was blue. Because it was, the fates had already spoke it so—he had no reason to believe anything less. “And you’re going to be with me, and I’ll be the first hero who was ever happy.”

He spoke that too like it was without doubt, like Lance being there was the only thing he needed to be happy. His heart squeezed at the thought and he nuzzled the back of Keith’s head.

“I can’t believe there was a time I hated you.”

Keith entire body froze, chest not even moving to take a breath, then turned on around to face Lance.

“You hated me?”

And Lance wished he could take those words back immediately, Keith’s crestfallen face breaking his heart.

“Well, sort of,” Lance said sheepishly. “I didn’t hate you personally.”

“Was it something I did when you first arrived at my father’s place,” Keith asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “If it is, I’m really sorry—I sometimes do things that upset others without really knowing.”

Lance laughed, despite Keith’s bewildered look, and pulled the boy tighter in his arms. Keith reciprocated, snuggling closer to Lance, but kept the look of confusion on his face.

“No, you socially impaired fig,” Lance said affectionately, ignoring Keith indigent squawk. “It really wasn’t personal. It wasn’t anything you did to me at all. Actually, it was from before I even moved in with you.”

At that Keith’s eyebrows rose, and he readjusted himself so he could make eye contact with Lance.

“I didn’t know we had met before then?”

“Of course you didn’t,” Lance said dryly. Keith blushed and opened his mouth, likely to try and take back his words but Lance interrupted him. “It’s cool, we weren’t really formally introduced. It was when we were really young, before I came to live with you and your father. You had come to compete in a tournament my—my _father’s_ kingdom was hosting.”

Though he tried not to, there were many things Lance remembered about his time before being exiled to live with in the kingdom of Keith’s father. The time when Lance was a prince himself, and not a companion to a prince as he was now. Most, if not all, were unpleasant memories. But one memory that would define the rest of his life was the first time he ever saw Keith.

Not that he had much of a choice in the matter.

And he didn’t just mean that because as the prince he was forced to watch all competitions—much to the annoyance of his father who would rather have a son who could compete in the activities.

He didn’t have much a choice of seeing Keith just like anyone there didn’t have much a choice. There was something about the boy that caught everyone’s gaze, though it was clear he wasn’t trying. Most people accounted it to the divinity in him, that the part of him that was god made all mortals entranced by him. Lance had thought that couldn’t be all there was to it.

But then it was time for Keith’s activity, running—the only one he could compete in at the tender age of five. And Lance was captivated as he watched him run, watched him pass all his competitors despite being the smallest of the bunch, watched him as he beat them all to cross the finish line in first place.

But it wasn’t even that he was the fastest. Keith had run with a grace Lance had never seen anyone even walk before. He ran like it was an art, and it had stolen Lance’s breath away.

Until his father spoke to him.

“He told me that was what a son _should_ be,” Lance said, finishing up his story. “Which I clearly was not. Suddenly all the good things watching you run had made me feel were sucked away. I envied you for being everything my father wanted, hated that you were so talented and I was just…not.”

Keith was quiet for a moment, and Lance let him take it in. Stroking Keith’s back gently, Lance’s mind wandered to what would’ve happened if he hadn’t been banished from his home and sent to live with Keith’s father and by default Keith. Would he have grown up forever hating him?

Lance hated to think that there were any lifetimes where he never learned to love Keith.

“He was wrong,” Keith finally spoke, voice low. “You know that right, that your father was wrong?”

Lance shrugged in response, because it wasn’t that simple. Was it wrong to have said that to his five-year-old son? Yes absolutely, thanks for nothing dad. But was he wrong in what he said? Lance couldn’t find it in him to disagree.

Yes Keith was a talented warrior and athlete, bringing praise to his kingdom and being hailed as the greatest of the Greeks. But he was more than that. He was quiet, thoughtful, and played a lyre like it was nobody’s business.

And no, Keith wasn’t exactly perfect. He was headstrong, stubborn, and ridiculously reckless. But none of those traits came out of being cruel. He was simply passionate, and those are the traits that often come with passion. And Lance wouldn’t trade any of them if it meant that Keith would lose the fire within him.

“No,” Keith replied, sitting up on his elbow to look better at Lance. “He was _wrong_. There is nothing about you that falls short. I-I wouldn’t be half the person I am if not for you, so if he thinks so highly of me, he should think doubly that of you!”

Lance flushed, and the only reason he didn’t feel embarrassed about it was because of how red Keith was too.

“Say it,” Keith mumbled, hand reaching to trace Lance’s face. “Please.”

“He was wrong,” Lance replied hoarsely, blinking away tears that had collected in his eyes. Clearing his throat, he gave Keith a shaky grin. “Something you apparently can’t relate to.”

Keith rolled his eyes before laying his head back down and shifting closer to Lance again.

“Is that why you were such a dick to me when you first got there?”

“I was not!” Lance bristled, but grateful for the change in subject. “I had just been exiled, I didn’t really want to talk to anyone.”

“Yeah, but you avoided me specifically,” Keith replied, but his voice was fond. “I had to throw a fig at you just for you to make eye contact with me.”

“Well I caught it, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, you did,” Keith said softly, and Lance’s breath caught in his throat.

-

The next day they stayed in bed until Shiro made them get up. This was typical for Lance, but Keith was usually up hours earlier. It warmed Lance’s chest that he’d chosen to stay with him that morning.

When they finally made it out of the cave and around the fire pit, Shiro looked more somber than Lance had ever seen him.

“Is everything okay?” Lance asked hesitantly, not wanting to upset his teacher. Shiro had come to be the closest thing Lance had ever had as a mentor, and he didn’t want to upset the wise centaur. Shiro sighed in response, and Lance’s chest tightened at the sound of it.

“I’ve received a message,” Shiro said, slowly but steady as he looked up and made eye contact with Keith. “It’s from your father. There’s urgent business back home and he requests you back.”

Lance froze, and his eyes flicked to Keith. The boy sat still as a statue and Lance wish he could tell what was going through his mind.

“Will we be coming back?” Keith asked, eyes studying the ground.

“…I can’t say for certain,” Shiro said. “But I suspect not.”

And they both understood what Shiro was saying. There was only one reason Keith’s father would call him back from training. It was only if his training was over. If it was time for Keith to fight.

If there was war.

They finished breakfast, though it was much quieter than usual. Keith stood, excusing himself and making his way back into the cave. Lance stood to follow, only stopped by Shiro’s hand.

“You’ve grown much in your time here,” Shiro said before his eyes flickered over to the cave’s enterance. “Make sure you put that to use.”

Lance nodded and made his way into the cave where Keith was packing his things. He said nothing, but went to grab his own bag and pack as well. He only stopped when he noticed Keith staring at him.

“You’ll come with me?” Keith asked, voice strained as if there was any chance Lance would answer no.

“Yes.”

“The summons was technically only for me. Even if you’re my…companion you have no obligation.”

“I know.”

“This isn’t a social call, Lance. There’s war waiting for me—”

Lance crossed the bed, going to grab Keith’s face.

“Waiting for us, Keith,” Lance said. “I’ll go with you anywhere, always, for as long as you let me.”

Keith released a breath and rested his head on his chest.

“Lance.”

There wasn’t anything more that needed to be said.

 

 


End file.
